Oedipal Wreck 102
by robert3A-SN
Summary: Sequel to "Oedipal Wreck": Annie's estranged father dies and the group accompanies her to the funeral - where they once again run into Annie's even more estranged, manipulative mother, Carol Edison. Final chapter up.
1. Oedipal Wreck 102

The only thing that works like clockwork in Greendale is that nothing works like clockwork. One week's madcap adventure usually has nothing to do with the next week's, as the tone, brand of insanity and genre always changes each time out. Only a select few things are consistent week in and week out – but that still doesn't mean Greendale residents can't be consistent outside of campus.

No matter what happened during a given week in the last two months, Jeff Winger and Annie Edison wound up meeting together at the end of it. Every Saturday night, they came down to Jeff's favorite bar to eat and talk, with Jeff covering a moderate amount of drinking. It occasionally helped unburden the tension of the past week as well – which made sense, since the original purpose of this arrangement was to unburden some other deep tension.

The arrangement was made necessary a little more than two months ago, when Jeff met his last one-night stand in that very bar. But unfortunately, Jeff had to tangle with her for more than one night. Not only was the woman in question Annie's estranged mother, Carol Edison, the night inspired her to come to Greendale and unfold a master plan to make Annie leave Greendale forever. Thanks to blackmail, Jeff's cowardice and Carol's psychological torture, it nearly worked – and it would have if Annie's tremendous strength of will and character didn't make her resist Carol even after the truth came out.

She even had enough left to come over every Saturday to the same bar where Jeff hooked up with her mother. It was designed to help them both get over the scars that Carol left them, which they would have to do if they could ever be together. Oh, and perhaps this should have led off with the fact that Jeff and Annie had been dancing around their feelings for each other for the past two years, before Carol even got her claws into both of them.

In many ways the strategy had worked, as Jeff and Annie actually were able to have fun during their Saturdays out. After all, leaving aside all of their issues and the new ones that Carol created, they were still friends. In fact, as Jeff confessed days after Carol left, Annie was his best friend – and that aspect of their relationship had only strengthened in the last several weeks. Their actual friendship was stronger than ever as they found new ways to enjoy each other's company – but the prospect of them being something more than best friends was still tricky.

No matter how much fun they had, or how Jeff enjoyed himself more on these platonic quasi-dates than he did with the vast majority of his one-nighters….the reasons for these platonic quasi-dates still hovered over them. They never talked about it out loud, and they were relieved that their platonic fun did cut down on their "unresolved sexual tension" moments. Yet neither one of them wanted to be the first to talk about it and bring it all to the surface – which was usually more Jeff's specialty than Annie's, although she was probably all caught up to him by now.

The fact remained that Jeff hooked up with Annie's mother in this bar, after pushing Annie away from hooking up with him for almost two years. And it remained that the chain reaction which followed severed any remaining ties between Annie and her mother, while tainting Jeff in some part of her mind forever. Perhaps those tainted thoughts were fading away, but they couldn't possibly be gone.

It got particularly awkward one month after Jeff and Carol's tryst, as both Jeff and Annie were afraid that Carol would be back at the bar for her "allotted monthly hook up" that Saturday. They had to spend their outing in the most secluded part of the bar there was, which did work in keeping them away from Carol – if it fact she had shown up. But it took another Saturday for Jeff and Annie to get their momentum back and have their fun again.

Luckily the group didn't notice anything between them either way in Greendale during the week. After good weekends, they could have noticed how Jeff and Annie were happier than usual, or how they were down after their rough weekend. But those two went through so many ups and downs that the group was used to it by now, and they usually had more unusual things to worry about.

It was also fortunate that Annie had her cover story of studying every Saturday night, so that roommates Troy and Abed didn't know about her outings with Jeff. No one in the group could know, since it would raise too many questions and suspicions. The least of which would be their assumptions that they were finally sleeping together and/or that Jeff was corrupting Annie. The most of which would be them finding out that their Saturdays started right after Carol's visit to Greendale, and then guessing why that was.

Abed was the only one that knew about Jeff and Carol, since Jeff told him in a moment of desperation during her visit. Fortunately, he kept that and his likely correct assumptions about what happened next to himself. Jeff certainly wasn't going to bring it up to him and risk Britta, Shirley, Troy and Pierce finding out anything. They didn't know all the sickening Jeff/Annie/Carol details, and they must never know – it was uneasy enough that Jeff and Annie knew anyway.

However, Jeff suspected that he was more ready to get over the hump.

Jeff had finally admitted to himself what he felt about Annie after that fateful week. If he had admitted it the day before he met Carol, Annie would have jumped at the chance to be with him then and there. But instead, he was waiting patiently for Annie to rebuild her romantic trust and feelings for him. Of course, having weekly outings with Annie that didn't include kissing and…..other activities was getting harder along the way. In fact, since he hadn't had any kisses or any sex in over two months, it was a torture that Jeff hadn't experienced in quite a long time.

The still potent jerky side of Jeff wanted to put an end to it whether Annie was ready for it or not. But the Annie-inspired conscience side of Jeff was willing him to wait for Annie to give permission, or at least some kind of sign that she had fallen for him again. It also allowed Jeff to enjoy being with a woman without sex or making out on the table, which was already easier to do with Annie than it was with any other female. Yet it also raised the possibility that maybe Annie was waiting for a sign from Jeff; something that would show he was ready to commit to her.

With that in mind, Jeff began to devise a plan for this coming Saturday. Instead of going back to the bar, he wanted to book them at the finest restaurant he could find. He would spring it on Annie as a surprise that night, disguising it as a test to see if they could spend Saturdays together outside of that bar now. And if they passed the test with flying colors after Jeff told Annie how he felt, and how he'd known how he felt for two months….so much the better.

Once the idea stuck in his brain that Wednesday, Jeff went straight home to his apartment and started to research restaurants. In fact, he even made the supreme sacrifice of turning his cell phone off, so that he couldn't be disturbed. After finding the right place, he even worked on the first draft of the greatest Winger speech of his career – the final draft of which would be unveiled to Annie on Saturday night.

To his credit, Jeff focused on these tasks for 40 minutes before his cell phone itch finally became too much. Figuring he owed himself a treat after his good work, he turned the phone back on – to be greeted with an icon that said he had 12 missed calls. Two each were from the other members of the group – including Annie.

Jeff scrolled down to the bottom to see that Annie left the first missed call, about five minutes after he turned his phone off. He was growing more confused by the time he played the call – then his brain completely froze when he turned it on and heard Annie sniffling.

"Jeff….I need you, Britta, Shirley and Pierce to get here, please," Annie's broken voice said. "My…my dad is dead…."

By the time Jeff finished his mad run and drive to Annie, Troy and Abed's apartment 14 minutes later, Annie was already surrounded by the other members of the group.

"Jeff, where have you…..never mind, I don't need anything else to upset me right now…." Annie managed to state before she broke back into tears once again. She closed her eyes from the tears, then heard Jeff run right over and felt him hug her. She didn't see the glares the rest of the group gave Jeff, but at the least, they didn't say anything and start some kind of argument.

Annie was relieved to see how hard the others were trying to help make things easier, even though they were ill-equipped at this sort of crisis. Troy and Abed were obviously the first to hear about it, once they saw her starting to cry 50 minutes ago when she got the call. They did their best to comfort her and try to use their own words instead of inspiring movie speeches, which at least helped her to call Jeff, Britta, Shirley and Pierce. When they arrived, Britta strained to choose her words and topics carefully for once, Shirley refrained from asking about where Annie's father would spend his afterlife, and even Pierce gave out a hug and kept himself from plugging his cult's afterlife teachings.

Jeff's absence broke the winning streak until now, but Annie couldn't let herself dwell on it. Instead, she explained to him exactly what she had explained to everyone else already. She got the call from her father's sister/Annie's aunt, who explained he had died of a heart attack the previous day. The funeral would be held this Saturday at her father's Episcopalian church.

Annie had already told Jeff about how things stood with her and her dad during their Saturdays together. But she had filled in the group tonight about how she and her father barely spoke after rehab, and hadn't spoken for almost two-and-a-half years. In fact, the last time they talked was the week after she got into the study group, back when she didn't know enough about Jeff or the others to discuss them with him.

They stayed estranged after that, since he had already left the Edisons when Annie was 13. Plus, one of the few things he still agreed with Carol on was that Annie had made a mistake going to rehab. However, since he had moved out years earlier, he didn't get the chance to be as pushy with his objections as Carol had been. But he hardly offered to let Annie live with him or visit him, and didn't seem to want anything to do with her after rehab either.

Yet a small part of Annie had hoped that maybe someday, his heart would thaw and he would seek to reconcile with his daughter. This made his death hit harder than it should have, considering that he hadn't reached out to her in years. Nevertheless, Annie had a slim hope that someday at least one of her parents would be willing to see her again, since her mother was now out of the question….

And with that, Annie's spirit took one more crushing hit. "Oh my God….my mother…." was all she could say out of nowhere at first. "On Saturday I…..she…." Although the group was often borderline incompetent at understanding each other, they still understood what Annie was implying now. When Annie went to the funeral, she would not only say goodbye to her estranged father, but would also see her even more estranged mother just two months after she never wanted to see her again.

"Okay, well…..maybe she won't show up!" Britta offered. "I mean, they've been divorced for years, and she'd probably burst into flames at an Episcopalian church anyway!" Britta was clearly biting her tongue so as not to segway into a religion rant, which both Annie and Shirley appreciated. But Annie then figured she should speak before Shirley got in religious comments of her own.

"It doesn't matter that they were divorced, it'll still look bad if she doesn't show. And you know my mother values looking good to everyone….well, most people, above all else," Annie lamented.

"All right then, so it's settled. We all have to get up very early and be the first ones there. Maybe we can hide among the other guests if she arrives late, or at least find a good secluded place to sit," Annie was shocked to hear Jeff say. She was then almost as shocked to see the rest of the group nodding along.

"Wait, you're talking about _going _to the funeral?" Annie got out. "You wouldn't….I mean, you didn't know him! And I don't think he would have liked you that much more than Mom did!"

"Well, you need _some _family to be there with you, don't you?" Troy actually asked. Sometimes Annie did forget that Troy said things which weren't related to Abed, mispronounced words or some other weird observation. Even now, this was a little inaccurate, since there were actual family members that would appreciate seeing Annie there. Yet having her other family volunteer so readily to back them up was still overwhelming.

"Britta, you'd really let yourself go into a church?" Annie asked. "Well, um…..heck, if your mom won't really burst into flames, I guess I won't either," Britta answered, and now Shirley was very visibly biting her tongue to keep quiet. Once Annie was certain she succeeded, she turned to Jeff. "Jeff? Can you stand being in a church and….being near other things too?"

Behind Annie's back, Abed was having a moment of realization about the prospect of Jeff seeing Carol again. Luckily no one else saw it, and that Jeff conveyed for him to stay perfectly quiet without Annie detecting it. After completing that mental telepathy, Jeff focused back on Annie and reassured, "I don't think even she would try anything at your dad's funeral. You got her to be done with you last time, so what would she have to gain this time? If she forgets that….we'll just have to remind her. I mean, when it doesn't ruin services or anything."

Annie would have gone deeper into asking Jeff if it would _really _be okay for them to both see her again; but she couldn't without explaining why that was necessary. The last thing she wanted was to make the group suspect anything, especially when they were going above and beyond for her without a second thought. By focusing on that, a few happy tears escaped Annie's eyes for the first time in an hour, which was her way of accepting their offer.

In between the remaining happy and sad tears that evening, Annie helped work out a plan for their trip. The funeral would be Saturday morning starting at 10 a.m., and it would take about a half hour to get to the church from here. As such, everyone would have to get up between 6:30 and 7, meet up here by 7:30 and then get to the church at around 8 a.m. Hopefully that would beat every other guest to the punch and delay any awkward reunions for a while; although it would likely speed up Annie's reunion with her father's dead body. But they would have to cross that obstacle when they came to it.

For the next two days, the group did the bare minimum to get through the usual Greendale adventures. Since this didn't seem to be a designated week for spoofing a movie or genre, it was easier to get through it and brush it aside. After school, the group made their road trip preparations, booked hotel rooms for overnight on Saturday and got themselves outfits for the occasion. It was an adventure to find a black dress for Britta, yet Annie and Shirley managed to survive it.

On Saturday morning, Jeff, Britta, Shirley and Pierce managed to get up early and drive over to Troy, Annie and Abed's apartment building. Once they saw them emerge and gave Annie the expected awkward greetings, they waited for Annie to get in her car and lead them to the church. She drove Troy and Abed, struggling with the fact that they weren't playing any games or doing impersonations in the back seat. Despite how the group was going overboard not to be douchey or wacky at a time like this – and doing much better than when Carol visited Greendale – it was almost more stressful that they weren't being wacky.

Nonetheless, Annie endured the silence until she arrived at the church parking lot. There were a few other cars there, but they likely belonged to priests and church officials. No other guests or family members seemed to be there yet, just as they hoped for. The others drove behind Annie into the parking lot and easily found spots to stop in.

Before the friends all met in the middle, they had to step aside to let another approaching car through and park in front of them. When Annie took a closer look at that car after it parked, she was too deflated to even warn the group about it. But when they noticed her standing still and then saw who came out of the car, they soon got their explanation.

They were indeed the first ones here; but someone else had the exact same strategy that they did. Because of that, the group only beat Carol Edison here by a few seconds. Now since both them and Carol had tried to get here first and avoid confronting each other, they would be all alone together until the other mourners filed in many minutes from now.

Annie's friends huddled close to her and tried to think of any ideas to get out of it, yet Annie sighed and signaled that it was okay; even though it wasn't. There was no way around this now, and the only thing left to do was go in and try to focus on why they were really here.

With that, Annie closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths and pushed her hands down to calm herself and get ready. Because of that, she couldn't see how Carol was doing the exact same thing, or how Troy and Abed had noticed and were straining not to point it out; or how Jeff was trying to discreetly cover up how he noticed and was disturbed to do so.

When those charades were finished, Annie finally took a step forward and started walking towards the church and her mother. Carol Edison didn't start walking, as she waited for the group to get to her. Once they did, Annie stopped and brought herself to look right at her mother for the first time since she cut her off. "Mom," Annie said with a measured speed.

"Jeffrey. Annie," Carol answered, and Annie tried not to think about why she said Jeff's name first. But when Carol took notice of the rest of the group, she didn't even say anything as she tried to contain a disapproving groan at them. Jeff did notice and responded with "Caroline," feeling like secretly needling her with how he and Annie had mocked her through Annie's alter ego, Caroline Decker.

But since Carol had a deeper frown and a more audible groan for that, Annie wondered if it really was that big of a secret.

At the least, the pleasantries were over and Carol joined the group in walking towards the church. She and Annie led the way, with Carol staring straight ahead and Annie only occasionally glancing at her. Jeff stayed closed behind, ready to do…..something or other at a moment's notice if needed, or even if it only looked like he was needed. But he stared straight ahead as well, not wanting to risk thinking anything if he saw both Annie and Carol from behind.

It took just a few seconds for them to arrive at the church's closed front door. Yet no one knew who should be the first to open it and let the others in, until Carol finally walked over to do the job.

"Shall we, then?" Carol asked as she held the door open for the others. Annie just responded by leading them inside, stifling an out-of-habit "thank you" in her throat. In any case, she needed her throat clear for the next several tough tasks that now lay ahead inside.


	2. Biological Orphan

**Disclaimer: Carol Edison is still my creation, as is the late Bob Edison**

Aside from the small matter of being dead, Bob Edison didn't look too different from the last time Annie saw him. From what Annie made out before tears blurred her vision, he still had the same amount of hair, same mustache, and what was probably the same amount of weight. His stubble had been shaved off, yet Annie didn't know if that was done before or after he died. But the fact of the matter was that he wouldn't be looking the same for long after his casket was put into the ground.

For now, the open casket was right in front of the church pews, with Bob's daughter, his ex-wife, and his daughter's friends as the first mourners to see it. After Annie got her initial look and had to sit down in the left front pew to wipe her eyes, she saw Carol come up to the casket once her vision was clear. Carol appeared to be kneeling down in front of her husband's coffin, and if she was saying anything, Annie couldn't hear.

Whether Carol was repenting or getting in some final insults, it didn't change how Annie needed to go back up there and say words of her own. She had to get them out of the way shortly, or the next two hours of waiting for the service to start would be more unbearable. But she certainly wasn't going to do it with Carol nearby.

It took a few more minutes for Carol to finally get up and take a seat on the right front pew. Even though this might put her in a position to overhear Annie, she had to get up anyway. She signaled that no one else in the group had to join her, so they stayed seated and kept their eyes on both Annie and Carol.

Annie approached her father's coffin for the second time, hoping that she could focus this time. Since she survived her first stint – to coin a very awful phrase – she was able to steady herself before kneeling down. She gazed right at her dad's still face and got herself slightly comfortable with the sight before speaking up.

"Dad?" Annie whispered. "It's Annie….long time, no see. Well, I can see you but you can't see me, at least not on Earth, but….oh, wait, damnit….oh, no, I mean darnit in here," she stifled herself not to say louder, in case Carol could hear her. "Okay, let me get a do-over," she asked before regrouping.

"Dad? It's Annie….it's been a while. Yeah, that's it. I wish it would have been sooner….but neither of us could get past our pride, I guess. Maybe you were waiting for me to come to you….at least that's the way I'd like to see it. But anyway….I suppose there's some part of me that should thank you. Of course, the other part is still mad that you left me with her, and that the one thing you two still agreed about was hating me in rehab. But if you talked her into supporting me, or if you came to get me after I got clean….I would have still lived with one of you and I wouldn't be who I am now. Or be with the people who helped me get there."

Annie made a gesture towards the study group without turning her face to them. "I didn't have anything to tell you about these guys when you….last called me. But they finished the job of saving my life, Dad. I'd like to believe that if you ever wanted to make up with me, the new you would have grown to like them. I've laughed more than once at picturing you and Pierce together in a room," Annie reflected while trying not to actually laugh at a time like this.

"Anyway, I wish you could have seen and possibly liked how Troy and Abed are the brothers I never had, or how Britta's the big sister that would have driven you nuts, or how Shirley would have debated you on God until the apocalypse," Annie theorized while letting a tiny giggle get out. "And Jeff….oh God, I don't know what feelings I would have had if you met him. I'm sure God's already filled you in on how things went when he met Mom." With that, Annie scolded herself for bringing that up now, especially with both Jeff and Carol sitting not too far away. "But maybe you can get past that to see how he's…..the person I care about the most now."

"Maybe if you actually came back, it would have gone as bad as it did with Mom. I'd like to doubt that….I really, really would. Maybe you staying away is the only reason you look better than her by comparison…..well, one of the only reasons. There are so many conflicting things to feel right now…..and now that there's no hope for you to clear them up…" Now Annie started to see her vision blurring again. "I love my life now, and I might not have had it if you were there, and maybe you'd have ruined it like Mom tried to do…..but I still kind of wish we could have found out for sure…."

With Annie's cries starting to get louder, it didn't take long until she felt a few hands on her shoulders. One belonged to Jeff, with Shirley controlling the other and the rest of the group not too far behind. This allowed Annie to clear her throat and start clearing her eyes again. "Okay, I think I'm starting to ramble…..heck, I got here early enough that I have lots of time to say more. If I think of anything else, I'll come back and let you know, okay?"

Annie pretended that her dead father could say okay, which helped her get to her feet easier and allow her friends to lead her back to the pews. She didn't bother to check and see what Carol was doing, or get an idea of whether she heard Annie talk about her. Annie could only sit back down, let the group comfort her some more and sit around until any more family members showed up.

Over the next two hours, the church did thankfully start to fill up more, as Annie found family members she actually didn't mind talking to. Her grandmother, a.k.a. Bob's mother, was one of them – and Britta did manage to discreetly explain to Troy why she was called "bubbie." In between reuniting with accepting family members and tip-toeing past the others, Annie did go back to her dad's coffin a few times and fill him in on the rest of her recent exploits. She had just gotten up to the second paintball war – and leaving out details on her outfit – before they finally had to start the service.

Annie was able to endure the service better than she expected – even though Carol was one of the speakers. But Carol refrained from dropping in any subtle insults or digs at her ex-husband, or anyone else in the family. It was actually a restrained, simple speech about their good old days, with some nice words about Bob's post-divorce life sprinkled in. Carol was quite a little actress and she knew that snide comments wouldn't make her look good, so this could have been one giant acting job. But considering what else she could have done, it didn't matter if it was.

Once they closed the casket and Annie wasn't able to get up in time for a few final words, things started to get a little harder. Indeed, she was crying again by the time they got to Bob's grave and they started to lower the coffin. Yet with her grandmother and Jeff on both sides of her, she was eventually able to breathe easier. In fact, she almost wished she could focus on Jeff and see just how uncertain and out of place he looked at this sort of thing – both to laugh and to admire him for trying to come through for her anyway.

Eventually, she thought she was cried out as they headed over to her father's house for the post-funeral service. There, she was able to relax by talking with family and introducing them to the study group. They were more at ease trying to tone themselves down with them than they were with Carol – perhaps because they were dealing with Edisons who weren't trying to bait them. Before long, they were even starting to laugh as they were told stories about Annie's childhood – at least the ones that weren't filled with teasing, bullying, addiction and rehab.

As for Jeff, he was doing his own exploring through the living room, getting his bearings straight after somehow doing enough to comfort Annie. Although he wasn't showing as much emotion as Annie, he had been a bundle of nerves in trying to find the right ways to be there for her. This was obviously not a situation he was an expert in, and having Carol there to possibly pick him apart didn't help either.

Yet Annie seemed to be calming down and the others were actually making up for whatever errors Jeff had made. Therefore, he felt that he earned a breather as he looked around at Mr. Edison's pictures, trinkets and slightly less fancy furniture than Jeff's. He was still walking on a tight edge, although he was relieved that he looked as different from Annie's father as he had hoped. The last thing he needed was anything that could make Annie compare him and Mr. Edison in an….unsettling fashion. Of course, Jeff had the advantage of not having abandoned Annie yet, but he certainly couldn't point that out now.

"Hello, Jeffrey." Correction, _that_ was the last thing he needed – to now be alone with the last living Edison to abandon Annie.

"Carol, we are not doing this today," Jeff tried to clear up as quickly as possible once he saw Carol. "In fact, me and Annie made it clear last time that we don't want to do this ever again. If you're delusional enough to think we would be flexible at a funeral, that's your business."

"That may be called for on other days, but not today," Carol calmly answered. "I have shown the maximum decorum today, since that's what is needed at a funeral. In fact, I actually came here to complement you on doing the same. I know this sort of….atmosphere isn't something you thrive in, but I must give credit where credit is due to you. Even if you can't do the same."

"That….would be flattering from anyone else," Jeff conceded. "You'll understand if I do a little nitpicking with you."

"Fair enough. That doesn't negate how far you seem to have come since….I last saw you. I imagine Annie is very proud of you." Jeff tried to decode Carol to see what insult and psychological game was buried under that comment, and what he could say that wouldn't trigger more insults and games. Yet he must have taken too long, since it gave Annie time to notice him and her mother and come right over.

"Jeff? Um, there are other family members asking for you, if you don't mind," Annie tried to bail him out. Jeff barely contained a sigh of relief as Annie came over, even though it put her in view of Carol. But Annie figured she would toss one compliment and get her mother out of her way peacefully. "Mom, you did a terrific job with your eulogy….I know it couldn't have been easy for you. But I thought you should know you did just fine."

"Thank you, Annie. I'm just glad I told your aunt how to contact you so you could hear my speech."

"Yep," Jeff commented sarcastically now that Carol let out her insult. "Wait, what?" Jeff asked once he recalled what Carol actually said. Annie was puzzled as well, and so when Carol started to walk away, she followed her to get clarity. "What do you mean _you_ told my aunt to contact me?"

"Well, you just moved into a new apartment months ago," Carol explained as she started to walk and talk with Annie, as Jeff was left with no choice but to follow. "I was the only one that knew how to contact you at your new home. No one else in the family had any idea, so if I hadn't told your aunt who you were living with, she couldn't have looked up how to contact you. If not for that, you might not have known what happened until it was too late to come here."

"Mom, I have a cell phone and I have e-mail. They would have found ways to let me know in time," Annie pointed out.

"But it's not like you've used them to talk that much to them, have you? And your father's death hit them so hard that they were in no condition to do research. So I helped them out and made certain that you finally got to see him at the very end," Carol informed as their walking took them down the hallway.

"Is this some lame attempt to guilt Annie? Because that's what it is, lame. It's bad enough you're even sicker than last time, but you can't even do it right," Jeff chimed in.

"I suppose my guilt trips have gotten weaker since I slept with you, I must admit," Carol theorized as Annie tried to contain herself from groaning louder.

"Well, if that's the one good thing that came out of sleeping with you, I guess I'll take it," Jeff found himself saying to try and get Carol back.

"You got one good thing from _who_?"

Once again, Jeff had lost to Carol well before he even realized it. He had lost the second she led him and Annie on a walk-and-talk. It had led them right to the staircase where she obviously knew Troy and Abed were sitting and getting their silly talk out of the way in private. But now she had made sure they had overheard Jeff admitting that he had slept with Carol – which was only news to Troy, but that was plenty bad enough.

"Troy, Abed!" Annie panicked. "It's, it's not what you think, Jeff didn't get anything from anyone! And there's nothing dirty about the anything anyway!" she poorly tried to cover up.

"So you really didn't tell them?" Carol asked.

"Huh. I thought when you didn't let it slip to anyone else two months ago, you'd be safe from blabbing more until late May or early September. I thought it'd be overkill to pile it on with a funeral, but I'm not the director on this one," Abed reminded. Although he didn't actually reveal what "it" was that he was referring to, Annie had a pretty good idea. "You _told _him?" she tried to ask Jeff quietly.

"Well, um….it's not my fault he couldn't find a movie or show to help me beat her! I had to take some kind of shot, though!" Jeff tried to defend although he sensed he had just made it worse.

"To help you beat her? Wait….did Abed know about you and her before _I _did?" Annie demanded to know.

"Abed, you knew about Jeff and Annie's mom before _I _did too?" Troy asked to know next. "Oh God…..I don't know whether to be mad at you or owe you my life! My brain is literally at war!" Troy proclaimed before groaning loudly. "Oh God, the owe you my life side just unlocked some nasty Jeff/Annie's mom images! I knew he'd be the one to fight dirty!"

"Troy, how many times did we tell you, no brain wars today!" Britta came over to remind him. "Of course…." Jeff resigned himself to concede.

"Sorry Britta, we can't all have a brain that doesn't know Jeff and Annie's mom had sex!" Troy yelled out before gasping in realization. "Oh God…that wasn't me, that was the evil side of my brain! Apparently he won the war when you distracted me, thank you _so _much Britta! I would stab him with a q-tip if I already knew that wouldn't work!

"WHAT?" Britta finally yelled – and Jeff knew she wasn't asking about Troy stabbing his brain with a q-tip.

"Well…all right then, I suppose they didn't know until now after all. That's all I needed to know," Carol proclaimed as she slipped out from the scene of the crime. At this point, Annie really needed to slip out too; at least before Britta let it slip to Shirley next; so she went the other way and ran towards the back door.

Jeff had two unpleasant choices of having to see Annie freak out in the backyard, or getting interrogated by Britta over what she just learned. "So here's the thing….Abed, go ahead and explain the thing now," Jeff offered before bolting like hell to unpleasant choice number one.

By the time Jeff found the backyard, Annie was sitting on her knees, not caring if the grass was staining the bottom of her dress. She was too overwhelmed to care, although she knew she should have known Carol would do something like this even at Dad's funeral. Annie had relaxed briefly when her attempts to shame her for not being available to the family failed; but it wasn't designed to succeed. It was only meant to rile Jeff up so he would spill the beans near a group member who couldn't keep a secret. And thus, not only would it further tarnish her and Jeff, but the scrutiny, accusations and likely disappointment from the group would stop them from being helpful today.

As if it wasn't hard enough to deal with her dad's death without this old wound getting opened again. As if the Jeff problem wasn't difficult enough without the group knowing about it. As if she wasn't doing a poor enough job finally getting past it once and for all. She knew it really shouldn't be that big of a deal by now, since it had happened two months ago, their Saturday nights had gone really well and Jeff was still her very best friend. If she could stomach being that close to Jeff, being…..even closer shouldn't be hard anymore, but those…..horrifying thoughts, memories and hard truths still weren't going away.

Of course, Carol probably knew that and that was probably why she did what she did. She saw him being so helpful to Annie today and probably couldn't stand assuming that they were really together, in spite of everything she did weeks ago. Dealing with failure, today's funeral and the prospect of her estranged daughter making her look bad by going out with a so-called dirty old man she slept with first….it couldn't have been a pleasant combination.

But even now, she couldn't put that aside for one day. Even when Annie refused her for good last time, she still had to get her way. Even with all she had done to make Jeff seem less romantically attractive to her, Carol still had to try and kill any chance for them.

But the key word was try.

"Annie?" she finally heard Jeff say behind her. "Annie….please say something. Tell me we should go, tell me we need to set Britta straight before she tells Shirley and Pierce…..or hopefully, say something that leads to Carol getting shot into the sun. I have no idea what I can do for you right now, even more than usual….so I'm at your complete command, milady."

Jeff was still here. Through all of it, he was still here. Through it all, Annie was still the only person who earned that kind of effort from him. And Carol still thought she could help take it away. She still wanted that much after all she took already.

"I'll show her…." Annie muttered and decided. Before Jeff knew what that meant, and before Annie was totally aware of it, she had gotten onto her feet, turned to Jeff and kissed him even more suddenly than she did at the debate. And even more passionately as well.

There were tons of red flags and questions that should have paralyzed them both at this moment. Yet Annie's desire to ignore them was very clear. Given that Jeff had killed himself trying not to ignore them for so long, he had had about enough of it too.

Annie wasn't grinding up against Jeff per se, yet she was holding him as tightly as she could. She was going on such adrenaline that she was pretty much reducing master womanizer Jeff into a puddle, although he was still doing his best to keep up. As she thrust her tongue into Jeff's mouth and let his most experienced one get into the mix, she grinned as much as she could against his mouth and thought that her mother never got this kind of passion from him.

And with that thought, the red flags finally started to get uncovered. The reality of what Annie was doing, the motivation for it – and the timing of it – began to crush her until she finally broke away. "Oh God, oh God…." Annie repeated as it fully sank in. However, Jeff was not quite broken from the spell yet.

"Oh come on, it was just getting good….you have no idea how long I've been ready to admit that I wanted this…" Jeff confessed in hopes of getting Annie back in the mood. But Annie completely missed what Jeff really meant with that statement.

"Wanted this….you wanted _this_? Do you know what _this_ is? I made out with you just to get back at her…..weeks after you _slept _with her…." Annie rattled off with increased volume. "And I did it right AFTER MY DAD'S FUNERAL!" she screamed in realization – which was loud enough for Jeff to finally get it.

"Oh…right, that…." was all Jeff could say as it now hit him just how deeply he blew this. But his growing dread was still nothing compared to Annie's, whose adrenaline high was now working in the opposite direction. It got even worse when she noticed that the study group was watching from the open back door – and especially when she saw Carol with them.

"YOU!" Annie screeched as she pointed a finger at her mother. "You planned all of this, didn't you? You wanted me to kiss him and get sick because you did it too! Didn't you?"

"What? Oh come on, you're making me like some kind of psychic supervillain!" Carol defended.

"Well, aren't you?" Annie countered, figuring there was no sense holding back now that the group either knew everything or was figuring it out. "You slept with Jeff before you even knew who he was to me, and then you used it to try and manipulate me into leaving Greendale! You already almost ruined all my dreams of being with him, and now you choose….._now_ to finish the job? What is wrong with you?"

"Don't you pin that on me!" Carol shot back. "I only wanted to make Jeffrey's friends find out our 'history' and get you two into trouble, and that's all! I had no plans to make you dry hump him as a side effect! I can't say it was a pleasant side effect until now, either."

"Even if that's true, why would you _want _them to know your 'history'?" Annie asked. "No, you know what, it doesn't matter….that just brings back the larger question of WHAT THE _HELL_ IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

Annie managed to tell Carol off last time without raising her voice, even minutes after she found out about her and Jeff. But this time, circumstances made her far less restrained and ready to break down, yet she willed herself to get a few more things off her chest. "Don't you think it's bad enough that I'm….a biological orphan after today? I'll never fix things with Dad, and _we_ want nothing to do with each other! But you…..you still tried to get between me and the last whole family I have left apart _today_? They came here to help me say goodbye to my _dead dad_, and you wanted them to focus on me, you and Jeff instead? Every time I see you, you keep trying to take things you haven't already taken from me….and you couldn't take a break _now_?"

Annie's ability to stand being in the same area as Carol, Jeff and the group was declining, so she tried to rush out the rest of her words. "Well, congratulations. You made things awkward with the group, and as a side effect, you made kissing the man I'm in love with even more sickening than before. You win again, Mom….so am I enough of a sore loser now? Huh? Am I, you…..you…." Annie got out the letter b a few times, yet still couldn't get herself over the hump to actually say bitch. "B…b…..b-person! You know what, since that's what you are, _you_ can fill in the rest! How about that?"

Since Annie's rants were losing steam and her tears were coming back, she quit while she was still ahead and made her way back into the house. She got through the group, the rest of her family and the mourners to get through the front door, intending to find her car and drive away to clear her head. She had enough of a head start on Jeff, Carol and the group to get into her car by the time the others got to the front yard. And with that, Annie was able to drive away from her father's home before any living friends and family could stop her.

Once it sunk in that Annie was gone and wasn't intending to come back, Jeff, Carol and the group were left together in a very tense silence. All it would take was one comment to erupt everything again, and Carol wound up triggering it by saying "Well, I think that's enough unbecoming theatrics for one memorial, don't you?"

"You know what? I'm pretty sure Annie's dad is gonna talk God into pardoning me for this, so….let me at her!" Shirley ran over to have her way with Carol, but stopped right in front of her. "Wait….no one's really going to hold me back?" Shirley asked when she realized the group was staying in place and not trying to stop her from pummeling Carol.

"Nope, you go right ahead and smite the b-person," Britta offered. The rest of the group's fury and disgust had been turned on Jeff minutes earlier when they learned what he did with Carol. But now that Annie's meltdown had filled them in on what Carol did, both then and now, Jeff was no longer their prime scapegoat at the moment.

"Annie's gone, you know. So you don't have to pretend that you're not selfish, jaded people for the sake of your child mascot right now," Carol proposed. Shirley grumbled under her breath and then finally started to attack her – albeit with words.

"You know that we're both divorced moms, since you have evil psychic research powers and everything. I brought myself to swallow my pride, find my forgiveness and get my family whole again. But you….you did things to keep your family apart that I would jump off a cliff before I did, even though that would send me to Hell! Of course, you were going there no matter what you did, but my point stands!" Shirley ruled.

"Is this really the time to rub your religion in my face?" Carol scoffed.

"No, it's the time to shame you for what you've done to Annie, if that's possible! We came here for her because unlike you, _we_ love her! And it's not because she's a child or we're trying to look good, but because she's the smartest, sweetest, most amazing woman we know! That might not be good enough for some people, but it is for us! And nothing you made us find out just now changed that, it just made us sicker at that sick man over there!" Shirley exclaimed as she pointed at Jeff.

"I mean, look at us! He's sick, Pierce hates everything under 60, Britta hates anything decent and moral, Troy ignored Annie in high school, Abed's best friends are on TV, and I'm not a Jew! But every single one of us loves her, accepts her and admires her so much….even a bit too much for our own good!" Shirley punctuated by pointing at Jeff again. "And _you _cut her off and tortured her because she hurt your publicity….well, how do you look when 'selfish, jaded' people love your own daughter so much more than you do, huh?"

"Annie's the only real, consistent friend I have, in addition to being like my daughter. So that technically means I still have to go back in time and bang you so she's born," Pierce added on to Carol. "But you clearly don't deserve my special talents, and I bet your boobs weren't as nice as hers back then either! Your boobs just lost out on some really special time travel sex memories, so suck on that! Or rather, don't! Heh, I hope late 1980's me remembers that one."

Carol was left baffled and sickened, so Jeff tried to vein to show some of the old Winger snark – which was better than being on the brink of his own mental breakdown." Well, Carol-" Jeff started before Britta stopped him in his tracks.

"Oh no, don't you _dare _think you're off the hook for one second, Winger! You just stay quiet while we say goodbye to the rest of Annie's family. Then when we get to the hotel, you _will_ explain yourself as much as we want until Annie comes back." Britta then turned to Carol to finish with, "But we already know his excuse for hurting Annie is being a horny idiot. You haven't begun to earn any excuses for it, lady."

Britta was so mad at her on Annie's behalf that she actually knew to shut up and not ruin the moment. Once that washed over the group, they paid no more heed to Carol and headed back inside to apologize for the fireworks before leaving. As for Carol, she just stayed outside as she felt the withering stares and judgment of the mourners and family members who watched the drama inside.

While that was going on, Annie was focused on driving to the hotel and trying to keep her eyesight clear. Yet her tears didn't make her drive off the road, as she got to the hotel safely, took out her overnight bag and checked into her room. There, she changed out of her funeral dress and back into regular clothes, before heading back outside to take a walk.

She figured the others would arrive at the hotel within minutes, see her car in the parking lot and assume she was back in her room. When they saw she wasn't, they would probably call her phone non-stop. Yet Annie planned to have it turned off for several hours, as she just wanted to walk around and get some of her head cleared before she could begin to face them. After this horror show of a day, the night needed to start more peacefully for her.

It was 7:15 p.m. by the time Annie started her walk, but she didn't care if it ended late. She still remembered this neighborhood from when she regularly visited her dad after the divorce years ago, and it was hardly as dangerous as the one Annie just moved out of. She knew she wouldn't get lost and could find her way back, although getting her mind and senses back was another concern.

She was composed enough to find a fast food place and finally get a nice salad to eat – and only sniffled once or twice while eating by herself. She was briefly tempted to turn on her phone and see how many missed calls and texts she had, but she wasn't ready to risk someone getting through. Annie knew she was being irrational, like she was when she stayed away from the group for three days after Carol's Greendale visit. But after everything that had happened, she couldn't face the group's questions, assumptions and commentary about her, Jeff and Carol – on top of not knowing if she could ever face Jeff again.

If Carol didn't really plot to make Annie kiss Jeff and be more disturbed by him today, then that made what happened even more inexcusable on Annie's part. The memories of her mother had already tarnishing her Jeff fantasies – and now Annie knew she was nowhere near ready to stop them from tarnishing an actual relationship. If that wasn't enough to do it, kissing Jeff out of revenge 90 minutes after her father was laid to rest would make due.

Annie really did have it right earlier – she was a biological orphan. She had no parents left now, and the most important relationship left in her life was officially ruined, after two months of trying to save it. And now the other important relationships she had left would be affected in some fashion because of it. As much as her logical side was still trying to show a pulse and snap her out of it, Annie still felt like she had never been more alone at this moment. No dad, a sadistic mother, being in such limbo with the man she wanted to love, and being unable to explain it to her last remaining complete family could do that.

This led her to just blankly walk through town for another half-hour until she came across a bar. It was just enough to make her remember that this was Saturday, and she was usually in a bar with Jeff by now anyway. Annie briefly worried if Jeff was thinking in those terms and looking for her in there, but in any case, she needed somewhere to sit down and refresh herself.

Annie was used to bars by now, so even though this was an unfamiliar one and she was by herself, she was in no condition to be scared over it now. In any case, she didn't need a fake ID to get into bars anymore, so Caroline Decker wouldn't need to show up. Since Annie couldn't do her justice tonight, this was a relief.

She found a place to sit and wondered if she should order anything alcoholic. When she was with Jeff, she always ordered non-alcoholic drinks, or something with only a tiny bit of buzz. This would be a good night to change that, especially since she wasn't driving home and she could take buses back to the hotel. Yet she had to face the group in some capacity tomorrow when they went home, so maybe doing it with her first hangover wouldn't help the situation. However-

"Well, look who's here….you are still my daughter after all." That stopped Annie from over thinking some more…..especially since that voice froze her mind and body.

It seemed that since she left her mother behind, Carol had taken it upon herself to take refuse in this bar. What's more, she was now coming towards Annie's table, and was quite clearly in the early stages of being drunk.

"Of course…." Annie muttered, trying to somehow ignore how she sounded just like her mother's recent one-night stand.


	3. Drinking With The Deckers

**Be patient with this one, since it's a long one with Annie and drunk Carol – and an attempt to put in a few last-minute layers to the sadistic b-person I created.**

"Well, well, look who I spy here," a drunk Carol observed as she sat down across from her slightly horrified daughter. "It's none other than Caroline Decker," Carol stated while trying to add a Texas twang at the end.

"Where did you…" Annie wondered before she figured it out. "You _were _in the bar on my Saturday nights with Jeff, weren't you?"

"Just that one a month ago! You thought you were so clever trying to hide in the back, but I saw you. It was more fun seeing you in secret and letting you two squirm, though," Carol admitted. "After I asked the bartenders about you two and found out who you really were, what else could I do?"

Annie knew it was suspicious that her mother groaned over Jeff calling her Caroline today. But Carol knowing that Annie spoofed her as the hard living opposite of herself was a relatively small concern – especially since Carol was showing some Caroline like behavior right now. "Is that what brought on this little….binge of yours?"

"No, not just that. Turns out after you have a wacky study group tell you off, family and mourners don't want much to do with you! So I figured I'd finish off my mourning in here….didn't count on you showing up, though! I guess my evil psychic research powers were off tonight, huh?" Carol slightly slurred.

Although it was almost certainly by accident, Annie actually got lifted up a bit by Carol's words. If the group really had taken Carol down after Annie left, then maybe there was hope to salvage a few things. And hiding out in a bar with a drunken Carol didn't have much appeal left anyway. "How interesting….well, I'll leave you to get your evil powers back in peace," Annie tried to wrap up.

"Oh come on, you might as well stay and gloat!" Carol proclaimed. "Lookie, here I am making a public spectacle of myself! Me! Ms 'don't you dare look bad by going to rehab' is about to look pretty wrecked soon! You really want to miss that show, then don't be my guest, then!"

Annie had no clue why Carol would want to manipulate her into seeing her drunk – it wasn't like she had much to gain. Perhaps the alcohol had thrown her manipulation mechanics off a bit, although she was still as articulate as ever, of course. However, there was still a part of Annie that was vulnerable to even a half-hearted Carol trick.

As she thought about it more, she realized it didn't have to be a bad thing this time. Considering how terrible this day had been, Annie needed at least one win before she went back to face Jeff and the group. And right now, she felt like she needed a bit of revenge and gloating to make up that one win.

"You know what, Mom? Seeing you drunk can't traumatize me, since you've done that enough already. And seeing you, of all people, make a public spectacle of yourself is poetic justice….and I think I deserve to see that. So yeah, you go get as drunk in front of me as you want," Annie demanded as she sat back down across from Carol.

"Hell yes, that's the Decker spirit! Let's go drinking with the Deckers!" Carol cackled. "Two shots over here!" she called out to whoever would listen.

"Actually Mom, I think I really want to stay sober for this," Annie corrected. Carol shrugged it off and downed what was left of her last shot, while Annie reached into her pocket to turn on her cell phone. She knew where all the buttons were and could push the right ones without looking, so she was able to turn it on, put it on vibrate mode in case her friends were calling, and then set it to record audio without looking at it. Annie wanted audio proof of her mom embarrassing herself while drunk – at the least, it might help break the ice with the group later or help lighten the mood after/if she made up with Jeff.

"So this is Carol Edison being drunk," Annie stated for the record after they got their drinks. "How does it feel?"

"Oh, I've been drunk before….this is the first unscheduled drinking in a while, though," Carol admitted. "Is this how you felt being on all those pills? Cause that makes you going to rehab even more stupid! I mean, who wouldn't wanna feel like this after a day like today?"

"Right….this was _real _torture for _you_, I forgot about that," Annie said sarcastically, almost immediately regretting her plan to stay. "Well, since you made that happen, might as well take credit, right?" Carol shot back.

"Mom, you knew I was going to be there, so you should have been more prepared. I didn't come there looking to make you more miserable, unlike you," Annie said, trying to sound as cool and collected as she was when she defeated Carol at Greendale, instead of the hysterical wreck she just was at her father's house.

"Then why did you bring _them? _Why did you bring _him_ too?" Carol demanded to know. "They aren't family!"

"Well, they're all I have left of one, you made sure of that," Annie responded with a bit less control.

"Well, why did you have to rub it in? Why did you rub it in that you still have people that love you and I don't?" Carol yelled before downing another shot. "Do you really want to know why I tried to make them mad at you and Jeff? Because it was better than seeing them love you and comfort you and make you feel like you weren't alone."

"Why is that such a bad thing for you?" Annie asked as she started to feel more sad than angry now. "Can't you just leave me that one little thing?"

"It's not a little thing, it's huge!" Carol answered as she took another shot. "You were supposed to be humiliated on your own and come crawling back to me. You weren't supposed to make people like that love people like you….because they do love you. They told me over and over that they just loooovveee you…." Carol called out as she started to laugh bitterly. "How is it fair that you get so many people to loooveee you when I can't?"

"Well…..there are many reasons…..none of which make you look any better," Annie brought herself to say. "And what do you care about being alone now?"

"Look at me now, Annie…..you made me cut you off and now I don't even have an ex-husband. I don't have atheists and Christians and TV robots and jocks and old bigots and slackers worshipping me….not that I was insane enough to want that. But you keep attracting people to you while I keep losing them…..it should have been the other way around after you left. It makes no sense…" Carol wondered.

"Maybe the whole problem _is_ that it doesn't make sense to you," Annie analyzed. "If it did, things would have been much different."

"I wanted them to be. I wanted you back home and back doing what you were supposed to be doing. But you're doing other things and you don't want it different at all….I heard you saying that to your father. You're happier being like this…." Carol realized.

"Not all the time….do you think I ever stopped wanting our family to be together again? Don't you think I still wish every day that you hadn't kicked me out? But I've learned to hate myself for wishing that, because I'm proud of who I became after you dumped me! I'm proud of all of it!" Annie insisted.

"Then why are you here with me instead of running back to them?" Carol pointed out. Even while drunk, she was all too perceptive. "You can't break away from me completely, Annie….but you know how to live without me and have a whole life with loved ones anyway. You're complete and I'm not….I just wanted to forget that for a little while. Especially on the day I had to say goodbye to Bob forever…..don't get me wrong, I hated saying all nice things about him today! But I can't help but think what might have been at my weakest moments….I'm sure you know what that's like."

Annie wasn't going to admit out loud that she did, yet that probably wouldn't stop Carol from figuring it out. It was bad enough that they both knew they couldn't break away from each other forever, no matter how much they hurt and stayed away from each other. Even now, when Annie should have gotten away and returned to people who still loved her and were worried sick about her…..she felt that she had to stay around and see this through.

Whether Carol was still manipulating her or not, she was revealing a lot more about herself drunk than she ever had while sober. And whether Annie needed this for closure or revenge or for some other thing she couldn't or wouldn't identify, she couldn't fully escape her mother – just like always.

So they stayed in silence for a while longer as Carol kept downing shots and Annie was on her second water bottle. Finally Carol asked, "How did you do it? I might as well ask now….how did you defy me back then? We were so much alike until you got to rehab….you never challenged me before then. How did you magically stop that?"

"I had no idea back then, trust me," Annie managed to start off. "I guess….I just didn't realize how much I hated my life until then. Not all of that was your fault…..a lot of it probably was, since I was what you made me. When I realized what that got me, I just didn't want to be that way anymore. I thought that since we were alike and you were there for me back then, you might have understood that. I guess that shows just how naïve I was back then. But if I rebelled against you more back then, maybe you wouldn't have overreacted so much when I did it that first time."

"So this whole new Annie really is just you rebelling against me. Trying to be everything I'm not out of revenge and all," Carol inquired.

"I really hope not….I do doubt it sometimes, though. I don't want to be like you, Mom, although I know I still am in some ways, even now. But I don't want to just be the opposite of you either. I want to be my own person that's not just like you or not like you. I don't want to care about someone or something or do something or not because of your example," Annie confessed.

"If you're succeeding and getting people to follow you, who cares about the reasons why?" Carol nitpicked.

"I care, all right? Maybe that's just because you don't care, but I still care! I don't want to use people or make them into someone they're not, or someone they don't really want to be. If I'm going to do great things and have great friends and do the right thing, I want it to be for the right reasons. Whether that makes me different from you or not, I'll never stop wanting to be the very best of my own person, in every single way….both for me and the people that still love me," Annie promised.

"Annie, there is no one in the world who's like you. I've known that your entire life. I knew it when you were born, and you keep proving it now….even if it's in ways I've haven't approved of for four years," Carol assured.

"In truth….you were never like me even back then. I had gifts that got me success and family and friends, but that was on a local level. Your powers are going to influence the _world_….I knew that even back then. You have things that I could never have and…..I wanted to ride your coattails as much as I could. I thought you going to rehab would cut those coattails off and leave me with nothing to ride…..but now here you are, even more set to conquer the world and your coattails are way too crowded for me! Funny stuff, huh?"

Annie didn't regard it as funny, and was less and less certain on what else to feel. These are things that Carol never said in front of her while she was sober, and not in those few times she caught her drunk either. Given how Carol was downing her alcohol, Annie still liked to think she was too drunk to try and trick her into…..something that would humiliate her. In fact, Carol seemed all the more willing to humiliate herself by getting publicly drunk and admitting more to her mistakes.

If she had admitted any of this back then, would it have made a difference? Should Annie allow this to make any difference now? This was too weird and emotional to get any straight answers from – but she badly needed more evidence. If her mother was really opening up under the influence, she was going to play it for all it was worth.

So Annie reached into her cell phone and turned it off, not wanting to think about how many more messages her friends left. She waited until she got her next non-alcoholic beverage, then decided to start the next round of the conversation. "When was the last time you saw Dad?"

"Hold on, I can still do math, hold on," Carol stumbled over. "It was about three, four…..something to do with three or four months ago. We just talked for a few minutes, I don't remember about what. After all our passion at the start and all our fights at the end, the end was pretty mild, really."

"How often did you guys talk about me in the last three years?" Annie went further to ask.

"Annie, as much as people suck up to you, the world isn't always about you. If he wasn't interested in finding out from you, why do you think he'd want to hear it from me? As if I could clear anything up. And I was not gonna talk to him after my little….Greendale visit and risk spilling anything!" Carol punctuated by either intentionally or unintentionally spilling her glass.

"He really didn't say much about me?" Annie tried to confirm. "I shouldn't be shocked….I guess it just crushed my last hope that he regretted leaving me. Maybe the divorce made him too exhausted to deal with _any_ Edison girl."

"Annie, don't make him more than what he was just because he looked better than me….or something that sounds like that," Carol got out.

"I know that already. Part of me did still wish that he stayed away for better reasons….like wanting me to do good on my own, wanting to keep me away from you, or something other than not loving me anymore," Annie lamented.

"Well, you seemed to like doing fine without one parent, and that one parent was me! Adding another number isn't that different, is it?" Carol asked.

"Maybe not…..it's still depressing, though. Being practically an orphan and everything. I knew I was since rehab, but now that there's no hope of changing that….I know I'm not really alone, but it still feels like it somewhere inside. You know?" Annie hoped for drunk Carol to understand.

"I kneeled at his coffin and I had nothing to say," Carol confessed. "Not a word. I just sat there quiet, and you just gabbed on and on. I ran out of heartfelt words to say to him years ago, love or hate…..you didn't see him in years and you shared your whole new life with him! You beat me again!"

"It wasn't about winning, Mom. It took me too long to realize that being the best isn't always enough. I wouldn't have learned that if I stayed with you or Dad." Carol seemed to try and respond to Annie, but she couldn't speak in proper English. So Annie stayed quiet and waited for Carol to get her bearings back, but instead it was getting harder for her to stay in her chair.

It probably wouldn't take too much longer until Carol was cut off, and Annie was running out of money for her own non-alcoholic drinks, let alone enough to cover her mother's booze. "Did you drive here, Mom?"

"Yep! I'll bet it'll be a lot more fun driving back home now, huh?" Carol giggled. "I guess we can compare after I finish driving you home, then," Annie resigned to admitting before getting up to help her mom out of her chair.

"Oh, you sure you remember where home is?" Carol laughed. "Lookie here, my daughter's actually going back home because I'm drunk! Mothers, you're welcome for my good example!" Carol had a few more laughing fits before Annie finally got her to hop down and follow her out of the bar.

By the time Annie got her mother out, Carol was pointing over and over to her left. Once Annie registered that Carol's car was to the left, she took her by the wrist and gently led her over; trying not to think about how Carol roughly grabbed her wrist to try and lead her out of Greendale. "You need directions to get home? You need to call someone…..you need to call Jeffrey?" Carol said in a sing-song voice that sounded too much like a twisted version of Annie's for her liking. At the least, that was better to shudder at than the name her mother dropped in. "No, I remember the way," she assured as she got Carol over to the front door.

After a few failed attempts to unlock the door, Carol succeeded and Annie got into the driver's seat. Then she unlocked the passenger side and got through the adventure of getting Carol in and buckling her up. But soon enough, they were both locked in and Annie started driving them towards her old home, which she still remembered the directions to even now.

Carol stayed quiet for several minutes, leaving Annie to wonder if she had drifted off to sleep. Yet of course, she then broke the silence by singing "Jeffrey loves you…." before giggling. "He does, he really does….."

"Mom, you are not the best person to say that….for a number of reasons," Annie sighed. "Even if he hadn't….been with you, you'd probably be wrong then, too."

"Oh come on, just because no one's loved me in 10 years doesn't mean I don't know the signs! That boy is just dying to ask you to prom and take your virginity on graduation, like the high school you never had!" Carol chuckled. "It was love that made him brag about you the morning after, and it made him come _that _close to confessing before I exposed us….and it made him go out of his element today for you. Leave out the Greendale stuff and him in his mid 30s stuff and it's freaking magic!"

"There's no magic here, Mom…..you sucked it all out the minute you….." Annie shuddered at her use of the word "sucking" in this particular conversation. "Then again, I really finished the job today….I mean, I really, really screwed up. I've screwed up in kissing him before, but this…."

"So you want to bang someone I banged, just do it already! If you beat me to it, we wouldn't have this problem, would we?" Carol needled.

"I don't just want to…." Annie stopped herself before saying another b-word. "I was in love with him long before you met him! He's the one that used excuse after excuse to not be with me!"

"And look where that ended up," Carol reminded her. "But it didn't stop him from going after you today anyway. So why should it stop you?"

"You're not drunk enough to forget _you're _the reason, Mom!" Annie objected. "Well, him too, but….how am I going to have a relationship with him when it started because of….him being with you?"

"He must have slept with a lot of women while he knew you. Probably even that unspeakable Britta character. If him being a slut didn't turn you off before, how is sleeping with me too any different?" Carol inquired.

"Because it's….it's _you_! What else do I need?" Annie kept insisting. "I tried to get past it today, I really did, but I can't do it yet. I don't know if I can….and I can't lead Jeff on while I wait. He's the one that led me on before, and he's not as patient as me. Hell, I was barely patient, and now look where I am!" Annie finally took a breath as a few more realizations came through. "This is what I get, isn't it? I thought he was a coward for pushing me away and saying 'relationships are complicated' and now look what I'm doing….I'm doing what he did and that's not fair to him."

"Then do what he didn't and make up your mind before you bang _his_ dad! Either you want him or you don't, so what's it gonna be already?"

Annie had one more shudder in her when she remembered how she told Jeff the same thing last January. But after getting over Carol saying it too, she almost regretted using those words in the first place, now that she finally had a deeper understanding of Jeff's fear. She dismissed and mocked his reasons and fears for not wanting to be with her for a long time; but outsiders would probably dismiss and mock her new hang-ups as well. Especially now that Annie remembered her make out session today more clearly – specifically the part where Jeff said he wanted to admit he wanted it for some time.

So now Jeff was ready to go all in and she was the one blocking herself from doing it; no matter if her reasons were more legitimate or not. What did that say about her and him? She thought she still wanted him, but would her body and her memories let her do it? And should she believe more or less that Jeff really loved her just because Carol said it?

Fortunately, she focused back on the road and saw something to distract her. "Oh good….we're home," she proclaimed, willing herself to focus on the next psychological hurdle of the night. For the first time since moving out, Annie was about to enter her old house. The fact that she was doing it to get her drunken mother inside almost made sense in a twisted way.

Annie parked the car in front of the house and then went out to unbuckle Carol. It took a few efforts, but she finally got her mother outside and on her feet, escorting her to the front door. Once they got there, Annie thought ahead and took the keys to open it up herself.

"Home sweet home! For one of us!" Carol called out as they entered the living room. "Did you miss me, people who aren't living with me anymore?" she asked as Annie reacquainted herself with the house. Aside from some new furniture, pictures and trinkets around, it still looked like the same home where she first learned about her favorite subjects, watched her favorite educational programs and celebrated two holidays at once every December.

As Annie drifted through memory lane, Carol tried to get up the staircase and struggled to hold onto the railing. Her noises snapped Annie out of it and made her go over to prop her mother up again. "Okay, I got you, come on…..two steps up, 16 to go," Annie encouraged as she kept her mother upright and walking up.

When they got to the upstairs hallway, Annie trusted Carol to find her bedroom, get dressed and sleep off her hangover. But she stopped paying attention to her efforts when she noticed the old door to her old room. Before Annie knew it, she found herself at the door and opening it to see her old sanctuary.

She didn't really expect anything of hers was still inside; indeed, the only thing that seemed to be left was the bed. Carol probably used it as some kind of guest room now, which explained why the bed had grey sheets instead of pink ones. But although it was relatively desolate, Annie could still envision her old childhood toys, library, stuffed animals and pillows as if they were actually still there. She even thought she could picture her old mom and dad tucking her in for a moment, until she heard her current mom stumble in next to the current Annie.

"It didn't have to be…not pink anymore, you know," Carol pointed out. "Why didn't you keep it pink? No, really….why did you have to go? You've been this superwoman the last few years, overcoming and doing anything….why couldn't you have done that to get clean _without_ rehab? You could have done it no problem here!"

"You're wrong," Annie tried to explain again. "It took years and years to be 'this superwoman' and I'm nowhere near super yet. I couldn't get that close if I didn't go to rehab and live on my own….you have to know that by now."

"I don't! I really don't! You're telling me the girl who made out with first year Jeffrey to win debate couldn't have kicked pills by herself? If you were that powerful there, why couldn't you be that then and just stayed here like I ordered you to do? You'd have been fine!"

"No I wouldn't have….you're honestly telling me you can't see that? You're drunk and you're admitting things you never would before….and you _still_ can't see I just…..couldn't be who I was anymore?" Annie pleaded with her mother to understand at last.

"No! It makes no sense to me! It might to you, but what about me? I needed you and you made me drive my little Annie away….who does that?" Carol wanted to know.

"How can you be so..." Annie started to ask. But then she stared into Carol's bloodshot, wide open and confused eyes, and she had her answer. She was going to ask how Carol could be so selfish or evil or ignorant, and then her eyes gave her away….she genuinely had no idea what she did wrong. She really, truly had no idea, even now.

She was as deluded as Annie was when her Jeff fantasies got the better of her after the Transfer Dance. She was as deluded as Annie was when she thought pills were the best way to deal with high school and being unpopular. And she was as blind to collateral damage as Annie was when she tried to make every one of her friends fail Spanish just to keep them around. The difference was that Annie always had friends, her conscience and her hard-earned wisdom to make her see the light, learn from her mistakes and try to be better.

Carol had none of those things…..no husband, probably no real friends, no conscience after years of trying to be the best at all costs, and eventually no daughter to save her from going over the edge. She genuinely had no idea she was doing the wrong thing, and she had nothing to stop her from believing otherwise. Or from going even crazier when she didn't get her way, for reasons she just wasn't equipped to understand.

Despite being in her mid 40s and being so accomplished and intelligent, perhaps Carol had never really grown up. Not in the ways that 21-year-old Annie had been able to do.

Carol was just…..incomplete and broken, like Annie thought she was years ago and like Jeff still stubbornly believed he was now. And it really was too late for her to realize otherwise. Therefore, things like forcing Annie to realize her 'mistake' and come home, or acting out when she saw how Annie had friends, love and success without her while she had nothing…..that was really normal to Carol. How could she know differently now?

"Oh forget it….if you're going to stare into space, I'm going to bed," Carol commented when Annie finally snapped out of her little world of revelations. Somehow, Carol actually did make it to her bedroom door and managed to open it, then got herself halfway to the bed itself. But her legs finally gave way and Annie rushed over to keep her from falling, yet she could only get Carol to sit next to the bed instead of on it.

"Okay, that's okay….sleep it off and you'll feel better in the morning," Annie tried to lie.

"Yeah….then 24 hours later I'll be all alone again," Carol pointed out. "And off you'll be, saving Greendale and the looney tunes of the world! Super Annie saves the day for everyone again!"

"Mom, I am not Super Annie!" Annie insisted. "I don't feel super at all, not after today! I'm confused and emotional and I don't know how to solve anything! I can't even ask Jeff because he's half the problem…..and it's not like I have parents to go to for advice, is it?"

"I'm here now, aren't I?" Carol rhetorically asked.

"But this is drunk you…..so drunk that you won't remember a thing you said tomorrow. I'll probably never want to see you again after tonight, and you certainly won't either. After tonight, I'll have no mom again, and I know for sure I'll never have a dad again. I did okay without them, but…." Annie trailed off as the tears finally made a comeback in her eyes. "I shouldn't want it, but it's time like this I wish I had my dad. And sometimes I really feel like I need a real mom too….."

"No you don't….you never acted like you needed me," Carol slurred. "You didn't need me to love learning so much….I gave you the resources, but you loved it all on your own. You got addicted to pills without me, you got deluded enough to go to rehab without me, and you made jerks care about you without me. Everything that makes you you didn't come from me….not even your dad, either. So don't you measure yourself to people like me and your father….not when you went beyond us from the start…."

Now Annie knew Carol was too drunk and exhausted to watch what she was saying. These were either drunk lies, or she was saying things that were buried deep enough and would never ever come out again. Even if she believed it was the latter, it didn't make it any easier that this was the buried and almost dead Carol Edison talking. Yet she was still getting out a few final breaths.

"No matter what you do, they'll love you….even Jeffrey will love you, even if you don't wanna do him anymore. I never had that for some reason, and I never will now. I'll never get another shot at it now either. Jeffrey, Britta, Troy, Abed, Pierce, Shirley…..there's your ultimate revenge on me. Who cares if you can't kiss them….if they haven't divorced you or defied you yet, it's too late for them to leave you now. It's too late for a lot of things…."

It didn't look like Carol had enough strength to even move anymore, yet she was still able to turn her head from Annie; although she could still hear her mother stifling a sob or two. She stopped speaking words, although she let out a few groans….and the last two almost sounded like the word "I'm."

Before Annie could ask if that was really the word…..or what might have followed it….Carol's head slumped all the way down and her groans turned into snores. She was dead asleep, and would probably stay that way non-stop all night.

Annie didn't have much strength left either; emotionally and physically. But she found one more physical burst left and tried to get her sleeping mother up onto her feet. Since they were the same size, it wasn't as back breaking as Annie thought it would be, and she was able to hang on long enough to get Carol onto the bed after all. But Annie was now too tired to climb on herself.

She kept telling herself all night that she would go back to the hotel and face the others eventually. But there was no way she could do it tonight after Carol drained her this much. Her mind wasn't even clear enough to do it before she spent the night with her drunk, revealing mother, so there was no sense pretending it was any better now. All she wanted was to sleep and hope for some remote clarity tomorrow – so much so that she got a head start right there on the floor next to her mother's bed, with her mother sleeping above her.

Despite not having a pillow or blankets or a mattress, Annie fell asleep as suddenly as Carol just did. However, it was Annie who woke up faster the next morning, as she got to her feet and saw that Carol was still out like a light on the bed. Annie stretched and tried to see if her bearings were any straighter after a good night's sleep….or at least a night's sleep…..but Carol then wound up stirring right on cue.

"Ugh….what the hell…." Carol muttered before even opening her eyes. She tried to roll around but seemed to be paralyzed by her predictably heavy hangover. "God, this wasn't scheduled until…." Carol trailed off from the effort of just trying to open her eyes – and then from when they were wide open enough to see Annie. "You?"

"Morning, Mom," was all Annie was comfortable to say until she knew what she was dealing with.

"What did you do to me?" Carol groaned out. "I can barely move…."

"That's why I drove you home, remember?" Annie carefully asked, hoping that she remembered that and other things.

"Oh God…._that's _how you get back at me? Letting me get hammered and then driving me home to lord it over me? Nice try…." Carol sarcastically bit out as she struggled to get on her feet. "It's pounding my head, but I wouldn't say we're even."

"I guess I wouldn't either….so you really don't remember anything from last night? Nothing you did or said or anything?" Annie meekly inquired, now that she knew she was hoping against hope.

"Of course not, wasn't that your grand plan? It won't be so grand after this headache goes away….like I said, nice try," Carol gloated even as she put a hand on her forehead and tried to march her way to the bathroom.

Annie wished she was more surprised and hurt that Carol remembered nothing. But she wasn't….in fact, she didn't feel anything. She wasn't more heartbroken that Carol would never be that open again, or more mad at her for being as oblivious as she was, or more furious at her for still wanting to turn her back on her daughter while sober. There was nothing there.

And feeling nothing about it was actually okay with Annie. Not just because it was better than the alternatives either.

Carol wasn't worth fearing anymore, hating anymore or being disappointed in anymore. Annie didn't miss out on anything by not living with her, which she already knew. But Carol wasn't an evil psychopath who should spread fear and doubt in Annie anymore….she was just a broken, jealous shell of a woman who was more pitiful than evil. Yet since it was too late to change that, there was no point fretting about it….and no point in letting her affect anything else in Annie.

Carol was actually right – it wasn't worth thinking this much over her. Maybe it was still worth worrying about what she did to Annie and Jeff's relationship…..but it wasn't something that she couldn't fix somehow. And she would rather try and fix it than fear Carol's influence and the memories of what she did over and over – because the woman she saw last night was worth pitying more than fearing.

She would always be sad that things with her mother could never be fixed. But it shouldn't be enough to affect her life more than it already had….after all, not having parents hadn't really stopped Annie so far. And someone like Annie should be strong enough by now to not be haunted by someone like Carol….or at least more haunted. She should have known that before she let Carol get to her yesterday and make things worse with Jeff, even if Carol didn't intend to do that much. But it would start to end here and now….and on better terms than it did back at Greendale.

So Annie headed down to the living room and waited for Carol to bring herself back down too. Eventually, she got herself down the staircase all by herself and made her way towards her daughter. "I suppose you wanted a thank you for getting me home, then," Carol said nonchalantly. "Did you need help getting home, too?"

"No, I have just enough money left to take the bus. I'll get a ride to my hotel and then drive back to Greendale with the others," Annie assured. Carol just nodded, although her head was still clearly somewhere else. "So I guess I won't see you again until another relative dies," Annie checked.

"I suppose not, unless you finally come to your senses. But I suppose that's not happening," Carol conceded.

"No….not in the way you intended," Annie said without trying to be snide or insulting, even if Carol took it that way. But Annie was just accepting, and even sad that her mother would never have what she had. Yet she wasn't evil enough to fear or good enough to pity or help….and as such, it was really time for Annie to let her go.

And as much as Annie still wished her mother could be better….there was nothing she could do but stop letting it bother her. Or at least stop letting it bother her from mourning her father, or making progress with someone she still deeply cared for.

"Good bye, Mom," Annie wished, in direct contrast to how she said "goodbye for good, Carol" at the end of her Greendale visit. This time, Annie was calm and collected and not trying to hold back a righteous rage. Although Carol had nothing to say and only had a little nod in response, Annie just smiled an actual, genuine Annie smile to wish her good bye and good luck.

This just made Carol frown in confusion, which re-aggravated her headache as Annie left and closed the door to her old house – and a bunch of other things.

With her head and heart clear, Annie walked down the street and finally pulled out her cell phone. She had indeed missed many more calls since she last turned it off, but she would cover it all by scrolling down to Jeff's name and hitting the dial button. "Good morning, Jeff," Annie stated after it only took one ring for Jeff to answer.

"Annie? Where are…..actually, I have no idea what to ask you first," Annie heard Jeff struggle to say.

"Okay, I'll list a few answers for you. I'm perfectly all right, I was with my mom most of the night, I drove her home, I spent the night and I left without us screaming at each other. Now I'm heading for the bus, and I should be back at the hotel in over an hour," Annie filled Jeff in.

"All that just created more questions…..but at least one of your answers was that you're fine. I don't know how since you said you were with _her_ all night, but I won't nitpick miracles. You're _sure_ I shouldn't come get you? I mean, since we need to…..and since me and the group had some…..words and everything….and since we…." Jeff tried to complete.

"Jeff, I know we have things to talk about. I don't want to do it now, but that's not because I never want to. I'd just….like to see you guys again and go home, if that's okay for now," Annie wished.

"Of course, of course it's fine," Jeff reassured. "Well, since the group let me keep walking and talking…..barely….I can go over and tell them you're fine. Which you really are, right?"

"I'm on my way, Jeff….I'll see you soon," Annie stated in more ways than one before hanging up and strolling towards the nearest bus stop.

**Final chapter coming tomorrow.**


	4. The Talk

Since it was already past check out time at the hotel, the group had to wait outside with their bags packed until Annie showed up. Britta and Shirley took it upon themselves to pack Annie's bag for her – hoping that she wouldn't notice how unorganized it was until much later. But first Annie had to come back before she noticed or not.

Yet finally, Annie could be seen walking over to the gang, looking much more chipper than everyone expected after what Jeff told them. That was just one of the many, many things that needed to be cleared up after the reunion hugs, the initial questions of whether Annie was okay, and the expected awkward Jeff/Annie welcome back moments. Yet since they had stayed past check out and since Jeff would have to put up another bribe to keep their cars in the hotel parking lot in about 10 minutes, they had to get in and drive off before clearing up too much.

Eventually, they were able to touch base when they stopped for lunch, starting with how the group meant to go out and look for Annie after they finished confronting Jeff in the hotel. But after grilling Jeff about sleeping with Carol for so long, they ran out of energy to do anything but keep calling Annie. Yet when Annie informed them that she was at a bar with Carol, Jeff had enough energy left to slap his forehead, since he should have figured Annie would keep her Saturday night bar appointment somehow.

Annie giggled and reassured Jeff that she wasn't waiting for him, and filled them in a little bit on how drunk Carol was. But instead of playing the recordings she had of a drunk Carol at the beginning, she kept them secret and didn't reveal how much Carol revealed. She assured her friends that she was okay, that she closed the book on her mother once and for all this time, and that Carol was too drunk and hung over to try anything. The rest was too private and personal to share with anyone, even her Greendale family, so she kept it to herself and was relieved when the others decided to stop prying.

But they got on a roll when they recapped their little talks with Jeff, which actually made Annie laugh a bit. Yet apparently Jeff had said some things that finally got the others off his back….things they said that Jeff should say to her alone. They also assured her that no matter what, they would have Annie's back and stomp on Jeff's if she ever gave them the order. Jeff had no commentary on that, since they made their stance clear with some vivid imagery to him last night – even Abed said it sounded more extreme than the Human Centipede and Saw series combined.

However, Annie told both Jeff and the others that she was fine, especially after that show of loyalty. She also reassured them that like Jeff said, they were already working out their issues on each Saturday night together. In addition, she let them all know that she wasn't ready to handle any more romantic aspects and complications, as she still needed to work through mourning her father and what she went through with Carol first.

Annie knew that she was pretty much putting Jeff off, just like Jeff did whenever she wanted to go deeper into their relationship and he didn't. But she promised Jeff that they would talk about them and their deeper issues eventually, and that they would keep up their Saturday outings in the meantime. Yet since both their heads weren't entirely clear after this weekend, it would be better to reassess everything after enough time went by to think straight again.

Although Jeff actually looked disappointed at putting this off – which was just sad and ironic enough to almost make Annie change her mind – Annie stood firm and got him to agree. As such, they all headed back to Greendale on good terms, with Annie once again thankful to have such understanding friends and loved ones left.

It did still creep her out a bit that they had been so uncharacteristically successful in saying and doing the right thing. However, when the next week's Greendale adventure kicked off and the group was left at each other's throats just like the old days, the realization of it made Annie laugh in loud, long relief. This made everyone stop arguing as Annie expressed joy that they were really back to normal now. It not only helped them settle their arguments in the end like normal, it was also a good ice breaker for Jeff and Annie to talk about that Saturday and get their routine back in order.

For the next two weeks, order was restored in the disorderly study group universe, as everyone returned to their usual routines and clichés. In the meantime, since Jeff and Annie were experts at moving past chaotic incidents without really talking about them, they were able to do it again this time and act like normal around each other. They still hung out each Saturday, had each other's backs in Greendale and occasionally bickered again to boot.

What Jeff didn't see was how Annie went to her father's grave each Saturday afternoon, as she filled her dad in on her week and kept working through her feelings on his death. Her father couldn't talk back, but getting everything out that she couldn't get out to him while he was alive was cathartic. It also helped her vent out on Carol and Jeff as well, which helped clear her head as she tried to figure out just how she would settle her last remaining issues.

Now that a month had gone by since the funeral, Annie knew she had to do something. There was a week until the school year ended, and she was not going to let unresolved Jeff issues hang over her for another summer. Although Annie had put Carol largely out of her mind now, the psychological issue of romantically being with Jeff after he slept with Carol – and the new one of making out with him to get back at Carol right after Dad's funeral – was still potent.

She swore that Carol herself wouldn't haunt her anymore, or that what Carol did with Jeff wouldn't get to Annie more than it had. But that still left a few old psychological hurdles to overcome – and she had done better getting over some of them than others.

She knew she wanted to be with Jeff and that Jeff might still want to be with her – assuming that waiting around for another month didn't put him back in his shell. But Annie also knew that even if she could make Jeff her official boyfriend, there was still a ways to go before she could be "intimate" with him. And for someone like Jeff, waiting even longer than he already had for "intimacy" might well be a deal breaker. Maybe new Jeff was different, but Annie knew the old Jeff couldn't go down without a fight – and her waiting around might have weakened the new Jeff's fighting powers.

There were so many things Annie didn't know….yet she did know that it was past time to find out a couple of things.

Therefore, Annie was finally ready to lay out a plan for the coming Saturday. She told Jeff that she wanted to be the one to drive him this time, then worked out where she wanted to take him instead of their usual bar. When that was finished, she just had to wait around for Saturday to arrive and put it all on the line.

That day, Annie went back to her father's grave and let out her plans, fears and expectations for the evening. She didn't want to be crazy enough to imagine that he was listening, or would have helpful advice on this matter if he was alive – especially since she still needed her wits for tonight. However, while Annie couldn't possibly use her imagination to picture that her mother would be any help if things were different, she had wiggle room when it came to her father.

Just having some representation of her dad to talk to and not talk back to her was a good enough warm up for Annie; and her sadness over the circumstances had become manageable by now. So with her head a little clearer, Annie kissed her dad's gravestone, asked for him to wish her luck and headed off to the uncertain future.

The future picked Jeff up at 7:30 p.m. and started to drive over to the bar like usual. Yet Annie then pretended to gasp suddenly and called out "Oh rats, I forgot to get something at the store today! I'd better get it now before it drives me crazy at the bar!"

"You can't just wait till we're done?" Jeff made sure, to which Annie responded "It's a…..special product I ran out of. So yeah, I'd rather get it settled now." That shut Jeff up completely, as Annie internally cheered at pulling her script off. She was still not on a Carol level of lies and deceit, but she was getting better – for better and worse.

Jeff didn't suspect anything when Annie drove off course, still figuring they were just heading to a department store. However, some red flags did go up after a few more minutes – then they were set on fire when they neared an establishment he found familiar. In fact, Annie was turning and making her way into its parking lot.

"You know what, my product can wait a few more minutes. I remembered I wanted to stop in here first, clumsy me," Annie now clearly pretended to forget.

"Annie, you can't possibly think I'd believe you were that forgetful….so what is this, really?" Jeff inquired.

"Okay, no more acting, then. Jeff, I'm sorry I've put off….talking about certain things with you for a month now. I'd say it was a taste of your own medicine if I wasn't sincerely sorry and ready to make amends. I have….things I want to discuss that wouldn't sound as good in a bar, so I decided I'd like to say them in there….with you. Like a….practice date, if you will," Annie wrapped up.

"You wanted to surprise me….by taking me _here _to talk?" Jeff tried to confirm. When Annie nodded yes, she tried to calculate what Jeff's reaction could possibly be. Yet if she had more than the five seconds she got, she still wouldn't have anticipated him laughing. "Jeff? Jeff, you'd better have a good excuse for cracking up, mister!" Annie insisted, trying to be formidable before she started to get angry.

"Do you know why I didn't pick up the phone when your dad died? No, I guess not, because then you'd be laughing now too," Jeff answered himself. "I turned my phone off because I was planning to take you _here_….and discuss some things with _you_…that Saturday!" Jeff laughed again as he pointed to the restaurant _he_ had picked out to take Annie to a month ago.

"Jeff, don't joke like that!" Annie answered disbelievingly. "If that was true, then it means I stole your idea without knowing it….and you were going to take me here the day of my dad's funeral…..and you were going to….discuss some things too…." As Annie studied Jeff's smiling, still chuckling face for any of his tell-tale lying signs, she was shocked to not find any of those 48 tells at all. Then it dawned on her that Jeff really was telling the truth, and that Annie had just….and that they both….

Annie could then only hold back her own uncontrollable laughter for about three seconds. Jeff soon joined back in as well, as they both reveled in this latest dramatic irony. But considering that Jeff would have taken Annie here on _that _day a month ago, and that the day went….in such a different direction instead, there was a touch of bitter sadness mixed into their hysteria. And Annie still felt it hang over just a little bit by the time she finally started to catch her breath.

Yet if Annie let that affect her, she would never get through the rest of the evening. So she tried to dismiss it as one more psychological test she would face inside, and get things back on track. "So….since I really did steal your whole idea, you want to go ahead and lead us in?" Annie offered.

"No, I like how your version is going so far. I'm going to keep watching and compare notes," Jeff jested. "So….did you intend to cover us both? Because my budget tonight only covers beer, water and bar crackers."

"Don't worry, I saved enough. But if you feel like you should cover half since it _was _your idea first….I won't nitpick," Annie semi-joked as she was building up her confidence again. With that, she left the car and went over to open the door for Jeff, trying to savor her joking mood while she still could.

The light mood carried over inside when they got their table, sat down and looked through the menu. But they both knew they weren't really here to eat the food, and Annie wanted to get back to business while she still had the nerve.

"Jeff? I'm sorry I brushed aside everything that happened….four weeks ago and all. I had to clear my head before I knew what I wanted to say. I mean, acting on impulses didn't really turn out well….back then. But I think I'm ready to have 'the talk' now," Annie assured.

"'The talk'? Well, there might not be enough birds and bees left to help, but if they've been patient this long…." Jeff made a half-hearted effort to joke before things got serious. But Annie wasn't laughing.

"Actually, first I want to ask a few questions before we start talking. You told me after we….got close in the backyard….that I had no idea how long you wanted to admit you wanted that. Now that I look back, I probably took it the wrong way….so what did you really mean by it? How long were you ready to admit that you wanted to kiss me?"

Annie half expected Jeff to stumble through a half-answer, since she probably shut his slim window of opportunity to be honest a month ago. Indeed, Jeff seemed to be thinking of ways to sidestep the question now. Yet then he said, "Since a few days after Carol stomped out of Greendale….probably even at the end of that day. But it's not like I could have said it to you then."

"So is….that why you called me your best friend when we talked that Friday? Was it just code for….something else?" Annie dared to ask.

"It had sort of a truth and code mix to it all at once," Jeff answered as he tried to slip a dose of snark inside. Annie chose to take it the best way she could, and go on with a new question she just added to the list. "And you were planning to take me here before Dad died….where you were going to….stop talking in code. Is that right?"

"You mean was I going to say out loud that I…." Annie's breath stuck as Jeff paused – and she could have sworn that he stopped before saying the letter L. There could only be so many L words Jeff might say in this context – and so many bad possible reasons why Jeff didn't say that one.

"That I want to be with you in a romantic way? Yeah, that's a good translation."

Just when Annie had started to breathe, she had to learn to live without air again.

Once her lungs worked, they quickly started to gasp while she let out a few sobs. Jeff got his planned words ready for if they were happy or sad tears. But it was much more complicated than that.

"You know that I've wanted to hear words like that for a while now. If you said them earlier, I'd be ruining my voice by squealing, and messing up my lips by kissing you over and over right now! But…." Annie tried and failed to continue.

"But….I didn't say them earlier. Not three months ago, anyway. And now I'm too late." Jeff filled in, now getting his words for Annie's sad tears ready to go. Yet Annie cut him off with more words of her own.

"Not exactly….let me start off with the good stuff first. Jeff, I do still want to be with you too….yeah, that should have definitely gone first. Anyway, it's true that I feel better about being with you than I did….exactly three months ago. We've spent those months getting past that and being close again; closer than ever, in fact! And I learned a few things last month about letting my mom get in the way of how I feel about you."

"Which is?" Jeff tried to confirm again.

"It's strong enough to not let my mom stop me from going out with you, or being your girlfriend. Since Mom didn't really 'date' you and she wasn't your girlfriend, she can't scare me off doing those things, at least! Not after these last few months!"

Annie tried not to let herself get off script as she saw Jeff try to contain his relief and growing happiness. She let him feel euphoric for a few seconds before she chimed in with a "But…." She waited for Jeff's contained smile to fade, waiting to see if he got it before she had to say it.

"But….you have a hang-up with the other stuff," Jeff deduced.

"Yeah. Like I said, you having sex with my mom isn't enough to stop me from dating you anymore. But being…..intimate with you….that's still another matter. I thought I was getting over it before the funeral….but after I…." Annie trailed off as Jeff filled in the rest.

"Annie, I should have stopped you. I should have resisted myself a little while longer, I mean I was doing good until then!" Jeff tried to take the blame.

"Jeff, that's not necessary. I acted out and kissed you at the wrong time….again. And now I don't know if I trust myself to do it the right way anymore….if there is still a right way. I shouldn't let what happened stop me from kissing you and doing….other things…..but I know it'll still be a problem. And I don't know when it won't be," Annie confessed.

"Well….you had weird sex hang-ups from the day I met you. This isn't anything different," Jeff tried to assure Annie.

"But it is! I was just getting over my other sex problems, remember?" Annie recalled.

"Right….you did face the music on a few sexy things," Jeff said to allude to Annie's musical sexy Santa performance.

"This is different….I really took a few big steps back at my Dad's house. And I can't tell you when it might get better. I don't know when I'll make out with you and not think of how my mom kissed you, or whether I'm trying to outdo my mom, or if I'll mess it up like I did after the funeral. All I know is I can't put us both through that until I'm ready, and I don't know when I'll be! And…." Annie steeled herself before she willed herself to give Jeff his way out.

"I know you haven't….been with anyone since my mom, and being without…..someone for three months is really long for you. And now you're ready to be with me, but I'm still not comfortable with….being your next someone. It's not fair to torture you like that….I don't want to lead you on like I accused you of leading me on all this time," Annie admitted.

"You know, I always laughed off your excuses for not wanting to be with me. Age, the group, you thinking you'd hurt me, all that stuff that I didn't think mattered. But now that I have my own ridiculous problems I can't get past….I'm sorry for not understanding your hang-ups more. Granted, I might have more legitimate hang-ups than you did. And you let yours stop you from having a relationship, while mine are only stopping me from making out and having sex now. But I'm going to let that slide," Annie offered.

"The point is, asking you to wait even longer to get….close to me…..you don't have to do it. I will do every single thing possible to get over it, but if putting up with that is too much for you, or if you don't think you can wait that long…..I completely understand. So I'm giving you an out right now. If this thing, if my psychological block about getting….physical with you is a deal breaker, then I don't want to make a deal. We can still stay as we are, stay best friends…..and I won't get in your way of getting physical with someone else. I won't be jealous, I won't act out, and I'll support you no matter what you want to do. I'd rather have you in my life than push you away or make you hate me….I get what that feels like now," Annie wrapped up.

As much as it pained her to possibly end it like this, and as much as she was struggling to breathe again, Annie forced herself to keep steady and face Jeff's decision like an adult. After all, she was doing the grown up thing by being honest with her problems, and warning Jeff exactly what he'd be in for if he stayed with her.

After what Jeff told her in the car, it was even clearer that it took everything he had to keep from making out with Annie before the funeral. She couldn't let him keep torturing himself for another three months, or however long it took Annie to feel comfortable about having….relations with him. He'd wind up resenting her or trying to push her before she was ready…..or going to other women when it got to be too much. As much as Annie wanted to believe Jeff couldn't be like that anymore, she couldn't let herself rule it out.

Fearing that might have been cowardly, but Annie wanted to make up for it by being brave enough to give Jeff a way out. These last few months had proven that they still worked great as friends, and if that's all they could have….she was ready to accept it. Unlike other Edison women, Annie would not push someone away or think less of them because he wanted different things than she did. Not anymore.

"Okay….first of all, thank you for making me such a man-whore," Jeff started and made Annie gasp –even now, words like whore were enough to get her flustered. "But since I've made it easy for you to do that for three years, I'll let it slide. Second of all, you giving _me _a way out and letting yourself settle for just having me in your life….that's what isn't fair. After what I did, I'm still a long way from deserving that kind of consideration," Jeff admitted, and Annie didn't know if that was a good or bad sign.

"You are right on one thing, though. I don't usually spend three months going out with a woman and not…..using my mouth for other skills." Whatever was left of Annie's modesty made her gasp a little quieter at that innuendo, although she was trying not to make this harder on herself.

"But if that's what three months of that stuff is really like….I can see myself going through three more. Or six, or nine…..maybe I'll even take a shot at 12 if I have to."

Annie concentrated hard to decode Jeff's message, and tried not to get carried away when she had a working theory. "Jeff….what _exactly _are you hinting at?"

"Right, right, I can't use code anymore, got it. Translated, it means I don't need to kiss you or see you naked to want to keep dating you. Not until you're ready, anyway."

Three months ago, the old Annie would have forgotten where she was, jumped up and down and smothered Jeff with kisses right now. That urge was still dancing around in her stomach right now, and Annie didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. She did know it was almost making her forget her remaining questions, so she had to ask them while she still was in her right mind.

"Jeff, you have to be absolutely sure about this. If you're saying that so I won't cry or get upset, I'll reject you here and now. You've never dated like this before, you know."

"I'm pretty sure I've been doing it for the last three months," Jeff recalled. "And I'm still here, aren't I?"

"Well, yeah, but…..but you've been waiting long enough! While I've been freaking out over my issues, you've been resolving yours behind my back! After all this time, you've gotten through all _your_ hang-ups…..and don't get me wrong, I am so, _so_ proud of you for it!" Annie exclaimed.

"Thanks….after facing Carol Edison, being afraid of anything else seemed pretty stupid. The group gave it their best shot, but I got them to back down and give us their blessing. The back stomping if it goes wrong was a fair compromise…..by comparison," Jeff explained.

"See, there you go! You've come even further than I have lately, and now I can't give you everything you deserve for it. It's not fair that I'm making you wait even longer," Annie lamented.

"Annie, I have been 10 times more unfair to you before this. You've still got a very long way to go before you can be unfair to me….or lead me on like I did to you," Jeff reassured.

Annie was even more tempted to stop asking questions and just accept that Jeff wasn't backing away. But so many bubbles had been popped over the last three months….so many things had been set to go right only to have another tragedy or crisis blow up in her face. Technically, that had been happening earlier than three months ago, yet she really couldn't take another example right now. She wasn't used to Jeff saying the right thing so often….or saying things she only dreamed of before three months ago….so she was extra afraid of the bottom being dropped. But if it was going to drop, she needed to get it over with now before it got even harder.

So she pressed on one last time to make sure, demanding, "Jeff, regardless if I'm being unfair by your standards, I need you to tell the truth. Please, _please _tell me if you're _really _okay with being patient with me on this. I need to know everything if I'm going to get my hopes up one last time…."

Annie was worried that she said "one last time" the wrong way and gave Jeff the wrong idea. Indeed, he was starting to look more nervous and unsure of what he wanted to say. As such, Annie braced herself again to try and anticipate the worst.

"All right….I'm a wreck, is that what you want me to admit? You'd think after two years, I'd have a better idea how to resist you by now! I'm saying all the right things now, but it's taking everything I have not to….use my mouth in those other ways! I've stopped denying that I wanted to do it for three months, but I've held back until you were ready! That's why I wasn't in any mood to resist you when we were at your dad's backyard. And if you kissed me now, I can't promise that I'd….be ready to stop when you were. After all these years and these last few months, how could I?" Jeff sighed.

"I have never done so much _not _to kiss an insanely gorgeous, insanely incredible woman before….and that was before I wanted to let myself do it! But it's just so tiring now….especially when you're so close and I'm tired of you not being closer. Wanting to go slow, saying the right thing instead of the snarky thing, being just a friend, not touching you….everywhere I'm dying to touch you…..it's hard work and it's not going to get any easier. And you're right, I might snap one day if I'm even only 99 percent careful!" Jeff confessed as Annie deflated and began to think about how to give him a way out again.

"But I don't care. At least, I don't want to care," Jeff added on. Annie internally sighed, preparing herself to go through another turn on the Jeff rollercoaster – but at least this sounded like a good turn. It would have to do before the next nastier turn – if it came.

"Look at me, Annie….I'm _trying._ I'm actually trying to do the right thing for you….you know how big that is for me! It's the rarest thing for me, no matter how much you insist that it isn't….but I want to keep trying here. I mean, you just said you were _proud _of me….you think I want to make that stop? I can't….no, I _won't _let myself let you down and make you stop being proud of me again." With that, Jeff stopped and actually seemed to groan a bit. "See, being that sincere out loud took a lot of me, but I made myself do it. Even if I can't keep my clothes on until you're ready, I will do every possible thing I can until I fail. So if you'll really have me…. I think I'm due to do _one _thing right for you. "

"Oh, Jeff," Annie let herself cry out, as she was still more vulnerable to a Winger speech than she intended to be. But no one could blame her. Drunk Carol was right; Jeff could still love her or at least want to be with her without physical stuff after all. Of all the things for her to finally be right in. "You….you don't have to go that cold turkey, you know. It's not like I can _never_ kiss you….I just can't do it that long and without so many clothes yet."

"All right, then we'll ease into it like we did at the bar. Our Saturday dates made you ready to go out with me again, so we'll go the same speed with kissing too. We'll try to do a little more each time, go further when you're ready, and eventually we'll cover and uncover everything," Jeff proposed.

"That sounds workable," Annie admitted. "Can you really-" she stopped herself from questioning his commitment again after doing it too many times already.

"Annie, I don't know if I can, but I'm tired of not finding out. If I was ready months ago, before I even met your mother, none of this would be so hard in the first place. So I deserve whatever problems I get here," Jeff reminded. "We'd both be so much better if I just gave in long ago like you wanted."

"I don't think so," Annie corrected. "It might be easier, but maybe we wouldn't be better. If we just jumped in from the start, we wouldn't be able to handle a real relationship, like we might be able to now. I'm not so carried away with girlish fantasies and romantic dreams anymore….now I'm learning to be practical."

"Annie, you should _never _have to settle for practical," Jeff pleaded. "If I could be that sappy and romantic and dreamy, I'd have given you that a long time ago!" Even with that, Jeff inwardly cringed at being that sappy, and Annie couldn't help but giggle at his discomfort.

"It's okay, really. I needed to go through you pushing me away for two years before it got okay, but it's okay now. And I needed to go through rehab and being disowned to become a much better person for it. I even needed my mom these last few months, so I could get stronger and grow up a bit more. I needed _all_ that pain to get to where I am now, and you needed yours….but I think it's starting to pay off now. Or at least it will soon. So to get to the point, I forgive you," Annie finally got out.

"Well….if you want to go that far to let me off the hook, guess I can't beat that," Jeff jokingly conceded. He grimaced a bit since he was still fighting to be sincere, yet Annie just giggled to assure him it was okay. This made him relax and smile at her just like in the pre-three months ago era, which emboldened her a bit more.

"Jeff? Can I….try something, please?" Annie asked carefully. Jeff quickly nodded yes, so Annie slowly got up and started to lean her face forward. "This will just take a second," she explained, which further let Jeff know what was happening, and how long it would go on for.

With that to prepare him, Jeff mentally prepared himself while Annie leaned in closer, trying to let her mind go blank. Somehow, she managed to blank it by at least 50 percent, which was just good enough as she got close enough to touch her lips with Jeff's. She then closed her eyes, pressed her lips against his – and when he pressed his back, she held for a full second as she promised before they broke apart.

This was as long as Annie could kiss Jeff right now without getting cold feet, or thinking about/comparing how her mother kissed him. Although it lasted for just a second, the fact that she had done it that long was a terrific baby step. It filled her with her brightest smile, and by instinct it made Jeff light up as much as he could as well.

"I think that was the best kiss we've ever done," Annie proclaimed truthfully. Despite its short length, it wasn't done to win a debate, or to forget about choosing between two other women, or to indulge themselves before denial kicked back in, or to get back at family members. It was just a normal kiss between two people who were finally on the same page, on the same emotional level, and ready to work through their remaining issues together.

That simplicity made it all the more special for Annie, after months and years of over complications. More deeper and longer kisses would probably be more complicated as Annie got through her mental blocks – but for now, it all seemed trivial and not worth worrying about now.

"I'll admit, it's starting to climb up on my list too," Jeff quipped back. Even though the mood was getting lighter again, Annie still felt the need to make one more serious point. "I promise we won't just do one little kiss on every date, Jeff. I won't stop trying until I'm ready to ravage you….I'll even go to your therapist to help me get over this if I have to."

"Well…." Jeff started while trying to shake off Annie saying "ravage"; which made Annie kick herself for making this harder – or rather, more difficult – on him. But Jeff recovered to joke, "Well, it might not be his expertise, but he likes a challenge. And no one's more challenging than you, Edison," he said while trying to make it clear that it wasn't in a bad way – not anymore. Thankfully, Annie took it the right way and indulged in the flattery, until they both remembered they really did need to order some food now.

The night was pretty uneventful after that, as the two ordered their dinner, ate quietly and caught up on things that had little to do with their personal drama. There were no grand romantic gestures or lovey-dovey exchanges, and a good night hug was used instead of a good night kiss at the end. And yet Annie regarded it as the most meaningful romantic night of her life to date.

When she was a child and her parents were in their final years of marriage, Annie saw them eat in silence and barely acknowledge each other's presence. They had nothing to say to each other – nothing sweet, anyway – and were content to let any romantic feelings they still had die away. Such dinners and passionless encounters taught Annie how a relationship and a marriage wasn't supposed to go. So she was more vulnerable to believe romance novels, girly stories and tales of star-crossed lovers as the true examples of love. Or at least truer than the ordinary, loveless example her parents gave her.

But ordinary didn't equate death and a lack of love after all. That was Annie's mistake in getting carried away with Jeff the first few times. Even though it wasn't her choice to be unable to make out with him like in her old fantasies, she had still never felt closer to him than she did now. Jeff had learned to have fun and be comfortable with a woman without sex on the table, and Annie was learning how to make a real adult relationship, not just a fantasy one, work for the long haul. In a sick, psychotic way, maybe she owed it to what Carol Edison did this spring after all.

Yet Annie knew she would never be like her mother. She would not let family and loved ones go like she did, and she would never be too oblivious to learn from her mistakes, or know that she even made them. And Jeff was not Annie's father – a relief in a number of ways – but he wouldn't run away too. No matter how much aggravation an Edison woman caused him, he was not going to give up on her – especially since this Edison woman would give him more reasons to stay.

Granted, her dad stuck around for over 15 years before cutting and running, so whether Jeff had that longevity was still up for grabs. But it took him three years to get through his issues and be willing to try – and there was no way Annie was waiting three years to properly "reward" him.

They might not get as hot and heavy as Jeff imagined, or as sweeping and romantic as Annie had envisioned – not yet, anyway. But when Annie was ready, they would do an ample amount of both the first chance she got. Yet until then, she would be as happy to just be with Jeff as her parents presumably were when they first got together. Only Annie would make sure they had a much happier ending and would pass on far fewer problems to their children.

But that was getting way too carried away…..and having children meant having sex with the man her mother had sex with, and that was….well, a mental obstacle for another day.

THE END


End file.
